Min and Max

Well with a new son, work, and life in general; not everything I want to do will happen. So here is the list of minimum to do and maximum to do for this year, and some thoughts for future years.

Min:
Tomatoes: Red, White, and Cherry
Fruit Trees: Cherry, Peach, Plum
Mixed baby greens
Some Herbs

Max: As above and
Grapes
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Cabbage
Broccoli
Bell Peppers
Watermelon
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Strawberries

The big difference between the min and max, is infrastructure. I have several large containers for the tomatoes, spots for the trees and a raised circular bed in the back yard ready for herbs and microgreens. So most of the remaining items will need a new bed created. With that is a modification of the sprinklers from being inground yard sprinklers to drip lines etc. Then the grapes require a trellis and I want to have them grow up and over a back porch overhang type thing, which will need to be built.

In future years I want to also grow some winter squash varieties, amaranth, corn, beans, snap peas, potatoes etc. I also need to figure out how to plant some more edibles in the front yard. Perhaps a strawberry ground cover with paths on the side of with the large tree. Because I am a bit unsure of sewer line placement and watermains, I don't want to plant any trees in front and it needs to be presentable to people.

The region is a semi-arid desert but next to several waterways, which makes the area a bit of an odd micro-climate. So a type of desert grass feel might work, with mixed in corn, amaranth, bean bushes, etc. That is in the future however.

Garden

Ok, so I have found no blogs about gardening in the Mid-Columbia. So I am going to create one.

I live in West Richland and live on a quarter acre plot. We just bought the house, and so I will chronicle my efforts to garden.

What is interesting about the Mid-Columbia is that it is hot, sunny, dry and in the winter cold. So when people talk about gardening in washington state, they tend to refer to the rainy portion of the state, or at least in Spokane.

Over the next few posts I will outline the plans and then the process of gardening that I have gone through.